The announcement is not likely about a gadget release, says All Things D

Apple is planning an important event in New York at the end of this month, but reports note that the tech heavyweight won't likely announce any new gadgets at that time.

According to AllThingsD, Apple plans to make its way to the Big Apple in late January for an announcement that is likely media-related. In other words, there won’t be an iPad 3 or interactive television initiative announcement that many expect sometime in 2012.

Reports suspect that the announcement will have to do with publishing or advertising because Eddy Cue, Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services, will be attending. Cue takes care of Apple's media realm such as iTunes and the App Store.

AllThingsD noted that Apple has been looking for a new head for its mobile advertising department after Andy Miller left last summer, and that the announcement may have something to do with that. But nothing has been confirmed at this point.

How many pages can you look at in an iPad? (Simultaneously that is) With a book I merely stick a finger or fingers to hold the pages I am looking at and flip back and forth. Or I have 3 or 4 books laying around the desk opened to the sections of interest as well as a notebook where I am scribbling notes.

Yes I could put the notes in each book (annotate function in an eReader) but I then have to track down all the books I wrote the notes in and combine them in a note taking app ... oops opening the notepad closed the book ... how convenient for making notes...

When I am referring to 4 or 5 books while studying or looking for information how many iPads do I need to duplicate the experience? Remember the iPad can only have one book open per eReader app and unless it is able to panel them as Windows & OSX can ... you can only have 1 book open per iPad ... makes it very difficult to compare texts. Makes it even more difficult to make a consolidated set of notes as I pointed out above.

Tony get in touch with the Apple engineers and ask them why they haven't duplicated the study desk experience yet. Of course the lack of that study desk experience may be the reason Apple is not advertising this particular use.

These complaints were not taken off the top of my head. This test has already been done several times using real students in real schools using the ebook equivalents of their real rext books and it was found in each case that the students could not use the ebooks for studying.

Casual reading is fine. Trying to do research with today's software and hardware is a PITA. The various tablets do work well for technicians in the field who need to pull up the repair manual for a device or quickly check a schematic to see where a fault might be. For school and research though, there is much left to be developed yet.

The monk in the video is using a very small window in the corner of his desktop. The iPad equivalent would have him sitting at a candle table trying to read a book that knocks everything else onto the floor the moment it is placed on the table...very useful for trying to do research :P

The desktop computer would have him sitting at a small coffee table with very limited space and forbidden to pick anything up. There is a reason non-Luddites like dead tree storage systems :)

I actually love real books and never read electronic ones because I can't stand the shoddy typography and clumsy interfaces. But I think it is obvious that electronic publishing, especially for technical subjects likely to be revised regularly, is the future, if only on a cost basis.

Currently publishing on the iPad is at a very primitive stage and I have yet to see a really stunning interface or design, most just ape, unsuccessfully, paper design. But the design and the grammar for this new medium will come. I may never like it but the children of today will just accept it. It's the future. In twenty years anyone under the age of thirty will think it odd to see a page that does not respond to touch.

So, I see this site has its normal hate apple trolls, so I'll make this brief. Text books are heavy. My kids get to take one home and leave one at school. Yep, you retards read it right 2 books. So now my kids have a chance for a portable light device that they can use in a number of good ways and you fracken clowns think Apple is ripping people off. That said, you ass wipings need to move to North Korea. You don't need a text there, or a brain, just your your liberal ass. The new boss will take care of the rest.